Available as linked pages on the Governance and Social Development Resource Centre (GSDRC), website as of August 2011
The guide is designed to provide a quick and easy way for development professionals to keep in touch with key debates and critical issues in the field of monitoring and evaluation. It will be updated on a quarterly basis.
About this guide
“How can the impact of governance and social development programmes be assessed with a view to improving their efficiency and effectiveness? What particular challenges are involved in monitoring and evaluating development interventions, and how can these be addressed? How can the ‘value for money’ of a particular intervention be determined?
Monitoring and evaluation (M&E) is vital to ensuring that lessons are learned in terms of what works, what does not, and why. M&E serves two main functions: 1) it builds accountability by demonstrating good use of public funds; and 2) it supports learning by contributing to knowledge about how and why programmes lead to intended (or unintended) outcomes. There can sometimes be a tension between these functions.
This guide introduces some of the core debates and considerations for development practitioners involved in designing and managing M&E activities. It introduces key tools and approaches, provides case studies of applying different methodological approaches, and presents lessons learned from international experience of M&E in a range of developing country contexts. While the guide focuses on M&E for governance and social development programmes, it has relevance for all programmes.
The guide was originally prepared by Claire Mcloughlin, and a comprehensive update was undertaken by Oliver Walton in July 2011. The GSDRC appreciates the contributions of Claire Vallings and Lina Payne (DFID) and Hugh Waddington and colleagues at 3ie. Comments, questions or documents for consideration should be sent to enquiries@gsdrc.org.”
